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For 1996, each voter should rank the top 14 players from all leagues combined.

Balloting is scheduled to close at 4pm EDT on 7 September 2016.

Anyone can vote, even if you do not normally participate in Hall of Merit discussions. If you have never participated in an MMP election, just post a preliminary ballot in the discussion thread by 6 September 2016.

The Cubs pitching has been statistically extreme in some interesting ways.

First, let’s look at FIP. FIP (“fielding independent pitching”) attempts to capture a pitcher’s performance, in a term similar to ERA, that does not depend on the fickle fate of balls hit in play. As a team, the Cubs have greatly outperformed their team FIP, posting a 3.13 team ERA (best in MLB), compared to 3.80 FIP (fourth in MLB). I believe the last time a team finished the season with a higher difference was 2002, ...

We haven’t posted anything on the minors in awhile and given that I spent a few hours watching minor leaguers in Lowell today I thought maybe I would jot down a few words as a bit of a placeholder if anyone has any thoughts;

- My second Spinners game of the year and the second time I saw Josh Pennington pitch. This kid is very impressive. He reminds me a bit of Stankiewicz when I saw him a few years ago where his repertoire just looks too advanced for the level. Hitters really look ...

One week after feeling like the Sox were about to crash out of the pennant race things are considerably rosier. The Sox beat up a disappointing Diamondbacks team (at this point “the disappointing Diamondbacks” may be their officially trademarked name), edged division leading Cleveland then picked up two big wins in Baltimore. Thursday afternoon was a bit of a downer with the Sox losing/giving away a game that can be pinned on a terrible bullpen and what can most charitably be described as a ...

Sox Therapy: The Red Sox Are Not Doomed (But This Garbage Has To Stop)

Ah, the return of Sox Therapy, the crack of the bat, the roar of the crowd and the sounds and smells of the ballpark; roasted peanuts, red hot hot dogs and urine filling diapers everywhere. The Sox hit a slump and we are doomed, DOOOOMMED. So let’s start with the cold hard truth, the Sox are not playing particularly well. They have lost four out of five, six out of nine and 13 out of 20. That ain’t getting it done for a team that fancies itself a pennant contender. However, that the Sox ...

11. Mark Armour Posted: August 08, 2016 at 02:48 PM (#5280649)Is there going to be another thread that focuses on the BTF chapter generally? The BTF “chapter” has zero internal communication (as far as I can tell) and this might be a way to help that along. Of course, having a chapter do literally zero for several years might be the GOAL in which case never mind.

The Red Sox get to enjoy a glorious day off after a grueling 11 day, 11 game road trip that saw them go a somewhat disappointing 5-6. It was a bit of an odd trip, if you want to see the glass as half full they could’ve been 4-7 if not for the Dustin Pedroia fueled come back victory last Sunday in Anaheim. Conversely they could’ve gone 7-4 if they had held on in the first two David Price starts (the Hanley error game and the Cano homer game). In the end I think it’s fair to say they left a ...

SABR 46 in Miami will always be remembered as the year we had “The Greatest Ballpark Experience of All-Time”. We’ve had good seats before at SABR conventions, but this year we were 40 rows from the field, between home plate and the first base dugout. The Cardinals pounded the Marlins 11-6, so it wasn’t much of a game, but Ichiro was just two hits from 3,000 yet as I write this a week later he’s still just two hits away.

I haven’t had a lot of specific things to write, and we’ve gotten our fair share of threads lately, but I still thought I’d put up a new open post and people can take it whatever direction they’d like.

Some random assorted thoughts…

- How about Javy Baez? His defense has been even better than I could have imagined. He’ll make the occasional error, either on a play he tries to force or where someone isn’t expecting him to make the throw, but I could only imagine what his defensive numbers ...